Setting up a comprehensive bonded area in Zhanjiang is of great significance to the city's economic development in sectors such as port operation, local officials said.

"The approval of the comprehensive bonded area in Zhanjiang means there will be a special customs supervisory area in western Guangdong province," said a manager of Zhanjiang Port Group.

"In the future, Zhanjiang Port can realize interconnected development with the bonded area, explore more new bonded businesses, provide diversified services and contribute to our further development," the manager said.

According to plans for the comprehensive bonded area, a focus will be placed on seafood and aquatic product processing after the completion of its construction.

Area representatives said they will construct a logistics park for cold-chain food products, contributing to Zhanjiang Port's container businesses and helping build the city into a distribution hub for frozen food across the world.

Employees at Quanlian Aquatic Products Collection (Guangdong) in Zhanjiang work on a shrimp processing line. CHINA DAILY

The comprehensive bonded area will help manage the transit trade and processing trade in the city, which complement the functions of the Hainan Free Trade Port, local officials said.

It will have 16 projects at its first phase, with a total investment of 10.79 billion yuan ($1.65 billion).Quanlian Aquatic Products Collection (Guangdong) is one of the 16 projects to be introduced into the area.

The company said it plans to build cold storage capable of freezing 300,000 metric tons of food, 12 deep processing workshops and an industrial internet platform.

"Setting up the comprehensive bonded area provides a great opportunity for business operators," said Shi Tongcai, vice-chairman of Quanlian.

"Private businesses can store cargo in the bonded warehouse and pay the duty on these stockpiles upon delivery, which reduces financial pressure.

"Processing enterprises can conduct processing in the area and then export the products without paying duties," Shi said.

Another company about to enter the area is Guangzhou Huilai Holding, a company engaged in agricultural product processing.

"After the comprehensive bonded area is launched, we will build an animal feed industrial park capable of storing 650,000 tons of animal feed, and we hope to put it into operation in 2021," said Xue Yuezhou, a manager of the company.

The project will help increase the import volume of goods by at least 600,000 tons per year for the area, according to the company.